After an Epic first day in Petra, Jordan (link here), we came back for day two:
At the crack of dawn, we hustled down and were one of the first people into the Petra entrance, roughly a mile from the Treasury building. We made a point to outpace the few other tourists, and reached the canyon road with no one in sight. We quickly ran across some of the Bedouin locals, who live in Petra's cave dwellings and hawk wares and services to the tourist throngs. Being that we were the first people there, they were happy to sit and chat with us.
Knowing we'd be short on time, we grabbed a couple of donkeys for an early morning visit to the old Monastery. At the far end of Petra, it can be quite a trek: a 40-minute hike followed by 500 steps up the mountain. With the help of our trusty steeds, we made it in about 30 minutes.
The ancient city was empty of visitors and our donkeys kicked up the first clouds of dust into the air. We stopped at one point and my guide gestured to my camera and pointed behind me. As I did, a perfect ray of sun shone onto the path behind us, framing the enormity of this city of ruins, tucked into its ancient valley.
After an exciting ride up the rocky steps, we parked our donkeys - they could go no further on the steep slope - and were instructed to walk the last bit. We were the first arrivals to these heights, and as we walked around the corner to see the Monastery, it was nothing short of magnificent. It was twice the size of the more famous Treasury building, and the scale was hard to translate into photos. The entry way itself was about 5 feet tall! In one of the photos below, I stood for scale.
Although we couldn't stay too long, we waited patiently for the morning sun's first light to peak over the top of the Monastery - an unforgettable image that is imprinted clearly into our memory. In retrospect, I can't imagine visiting Petra without making the time to see this building - it truly was the most spectacular scene we saw while in Jordan.
We returned back on our donkeys and the Treasury building was already surrounded by hundreds of tourists. We'd been away less than 2 hours, and already the crowd filled the entryway. With all the hustle and bustle, it was nearly unrecognizable from the serenity of the early morning, and we knew it was time to continue our journey. We look one last look and headed to the next big adventure: Wadi Rum.
